Filmmaking

From the Archives: Hollywood or Bust — What If Your Producer or Distributor Goes Bankrupt?

This article, written by Bergen Swanson, originally appeared in our Winter, 2002 issue. YOU’VE DONE IT! The screenplay you’ve been slaving over for months has finally been optioned by an edgy production company noted for offbeat films. Or, the movie that has consumed your life for the past two years has been picked up by a noted distributor. Emptying out your savings, selling your comic book collection, sleeping on friends’ couches – it’s all been worth it. But then the unthinkable happens. The company that bought your film or script files for bankruptcy, and your project gets thrown into legal […]

By Bergen Swanson on Aug 15, 2008 Filmmaking
25 NEW FACES UPDATE #7

Alex Karpovsky, writer/director, 2006: Since being included in the list back in 2006, I teamed up with Indiepix to release my first feature, The Hole Story, on DVD. The film is now available at retail stores across the country, Netflix, and other outlets. I have also completed another feature, Woodpecker, which premiered at SXSW last March and is now bouncing along on the festival circuit. Currently, I am in post-production on my first feature-length documentary TJ and Dave, which focuses on America’s most revered long-form comedy improvisers, Tj Jagadowski and Dave Pasquesi. I’ve also done a bit of acting recently, […]

By Scott Macaulay on Aug 15, 2008 Filmmaking
25 NEW FACES UPDATE #6

Here’s the sixth of our catch-ups with previous “25 New Faces” filmmakers. If you’ve been on the list and haven’t sent us an update, you can still email one to editor.filmmakermagazine AT gmail.com. David Russo, writer/director, 2003: I’m in post (special effects & animation) on my live action feature, The Immaculate Conception of Little Dizzle. I’d like to have it done for Sundance 2009 consideration, but I’m really taking advantage of both the Rockefeller and Creative Capital grants to make it thoroughly my own kind of vision. For me that just involves time, time & more time. The investors are […]

By Scott Macaulay on Aug 15, 2008 Filmmaking
FROM THE ARCHIVES: WHAT IF YOUR PRODUCER GOES BANKRUPT?

Independent film is, unfortunately at times, a cyclical business. In 2002 we commissioned producer Bergen Swanson to write “Hollywood or Bust: What if Your Producer Goes Bankrupt.” It was relevant then and may be relevant at now. It’s in our Web Exclusives. Here’s a taste: YOU’VE DONE IT! The screenplay you’ve been slaving over for months has finally been optioned by an edgy production company noted for offbeat films. Or, the movie that has consumed your life for the past two years has been picked up by a noted distributor. Emptying out your savings, selling your comic book collection, sleeping […]

By Scott Macaulay on Aug 14, 2008 Filmmaking
25 NEW FACES UPDATE #5

Here’s the fifth of our catch-ups with previous “25 New Faces” filmmakers. If you’ve been on the list and haven’t sent us an update, you can still email one to editor.filmmakermagazine AT gmail.com. Don Handfield, writer/director, 2005: Life for me has changed dramatically for me since 2005, no pun intended. I am married now – to a beautiful woman named Tressa, and we had our first baby – a little girl – Robinson Dawn Handfield – just two weeks ago. She came in on the day of the recent earthquake and has been making her presence known with more little […]

By Scott Macaulay on Aug 14, 2008 Filmmaking
THE REWARDS OF AIMING HIGH

An interesting conversation is developing over at Anne Thompson’s blog, in which she writes about some of the recent executive departures. Of course, the big news this week was Paula Wagner’s leaving UA, and in a piece about that development Thompson references Bill Horberg’s stepping down as head of production at Sidney Kimmel Entertainment. SKE has recently downsized after producing several films, including Charlie Kaufman’s ambitious and out-there Synechdoche, New York, which cost, reportedly, north of $20 million and, according to Thompson, was bought “for a song” by Sony Classics. She characterizes both Wagner and Horberg as being “ill equipped […]

By Scott Macaulay on Aug 14, 2008 Filmmaking
SAME TIME NEXT DECADE

The Long Now Foundation was established twelve years ago to “creatively foster long-term thinking and responsibility in the framework of the next 10,000 years.” One of its founding board members is Brian Eno, and he submitted a fascinating post to the site’s blog recounting the experience he had watching a theater piece in Oberammergau, in Upper Bavaria. From the post: In the early seventeenth century, as plague raced across Europe, the people of this small town made a deal with God: spare us and we’ll perform a Passion play every ten years. All of us. The whole town. True to […]

By Scott Macaulay on Aug 14, 2008 Filmmaking
MORE DARK KNIGHT

As the neo-cons attempt to return to the glory days of the Cold War, we’ll probably find fewer of them online blogging about the significance of Chris Nolan’s The Dark Knight. If you read my post below, Batman Fights the Neo-Cons, there’s been a back-and-forth in the blogosphere about the ideological underpinnings of the massive box-office hit. For some people, this is all just silly — Batman is nothing more than a character in a rubber suit. Some of the rest of us, though, get off on such cultural theory wonkery. So, if you are not a regular reader of […]

By Scott Macaulay on Aug 14, 2008 Filmmaking
MUSING ON FIGGIS

Just a couple of posts below I mentioned Mike Figgis’s blog on the FilmInFocus site. Over at his Movie City Indie, Ray Pride gets inspired by Figgis quotes on character and narrative in today’s filmmaking. From Figgis: I guess I’m in a period of thinking about film and filmmaking. I made a feature last year, it’s called Love Live Long but everything about [it] was far removed from the what cinema has become… I have read lots of scripts and written a couple for other people. The ones I read were not interesting and the ones I wrote all ended […]

By Scott Macaulay on Aug 14, 2008 Filmmaking
NEW NYC PERMIT RULES GO INTO EFFECT TODAY

The New York City Mayor’s Office of Film, Theatre and Broadcasting’s new permit rules for filmmakers go into effect today. From the press release: The rules, which were published today in the City Record and will go into effect thirty days after publication on August 13, will require a permit if filmmakers use vehicles or equipment, or, in certain situations, assert exclusive use of City property. Permits will not be required for casual photographers, tourists, credentialed members of the media, or other members of the public who do not use vehicles or equipment or assert exclusive use of City property. […]

By Scott Macaulay on Aug 13, 2008 Filmmaking

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